New chapter!! Yayyyy!! Thank you to all who favorited, followed, and reviewed. It means a lot. Hopefully more people will do the same ... hint, hint ;)

I'm very surprised that these two chapters have been over 2000 words long. That's never happened before.

Anyway, enjoy!! Please review and/or give suggestions when you're done reading. All errors are my own and I apologize. Please don't hesitate to tell me if there's any major ones.

-M

Chapter 2:

"How about you wear something more comfortable?" Cyborg offered, knowing that Raven probably wanted to get out of her dirty, ripped clothing.

When receiving a nod from his trembling friend, he helped her change into her sweatpants and then began inspecting her upper body.

And what a sight it was.

It was like somebody mauled her.

Slade must have been very cruel to her, to inflict such pain on her like that. It made Cyborg sick just thinking about it.

"Alright, Rae, I'm gonna see what I can do," he said, knowing that he had to focus on the task at hand. "This may hurt, but you have to stick me with me, alright?"

"Do w-what you … h-have to, C-Cyborg," raven replied, her voice weak. "It o-okay…" Her head lolled to the side and she closed her eyes, falling into a pit of darkness.

And then the robot began.

After a couple of long hours, he was finally finished. He was quick to bandage Raven's body up, and then stepped back to get his head together.

He had uncovered burns, whip lashings of some sort, broken and bruised ribs, scars - so many scars - and other terrifying injuries.

It was heartbreaking to see.

Understanding that Raven probably suffered greatly during these past hours, he knew that she needed some time alone … or with Beast Boy.

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek gently. "Thanks, Raven," he whispered in her ear. "You did good."

Raven just shook her head. "It is y-you who I-I should b-be … t-thanking…"

"Just rest now. I'm gonna go see the others; BB will probably be coming soon."

He walked into the living room looking paler and sadder than ever before. Blood stained his metal fingers, and he was looking at them with tears in his dark eyes.

"Did you … fix her?" Starfire asked him. "Is she 'the okay'?"

"She'll … she'll need some time to heal," the robot said. "Slade did a lot to her. It's a miracle how she survived that long."

"What did he do?" Robin asked, truthfully afraid for the answer.

His friend shook his head. "You don't wanna know, man. You really don't wanna know."

Garfield jumped to his feet then, unable to hear anymore. "I'm gonna go see Raven," he said, and without another word left the room. Before he opened the door to the infirmary, he took a deep, painful breath, willing himself to calm down.

And then he went in.

Raven was asleep, lying on her back with bandages covering her entire upper body, almost like a shirt. She was wearing her sweat pants; Cyborg was smart to let her change into something different, Garfield thought.

Slowly, he sat down on a chair beside her bed, taking her limp hand. "Hey, Rae," he said softly, pressing her knuckle to his lips. He knew that she would not reply. "How are you doing?"

(TT)

"Good morning, Raven."

His cold, unforgiving voice forced her awake, and when she looked up, she began to tremble. "Please, S-Slade, no more o-of this," she begged, watching the man's every move. "You've had your fun … now l-let me go."

Her captor smirked and the reached for the bag he kept on his shoulder. Once looking through it, his smirk turned into a grin and he took out a whip. A red glow was radiating from the instrument, and Raven guessed that it would hurt much more than a normal whip. She mentally prepared herself for the pain.

She still wasn't ready enough when Slade walked behind her and delivered the first hit. A stifled groan escaped her mouth, her throat on fire. She felt her clothing ripping open, the whip cutting through her skin.

Another hit.

The sorceress hung her head, her body tensing. Everything hurt, and the pain was becoming unbearable.

Slade continued to hit her with all his might. It was towards the fifth or sixth lash where Raven finally screamed.

"Stop!!" she cried, her words cut off by, yet, another strike. "PLEASE!"

One more cry escaped her and then Slade decided to stop. "That was fun," he said, trailing the end of his weapon across Raven's scarred back. "I look forward to continuing this … later."

He delivered one more, final hit, smiling when a voice cracking scream left Raven's mouth. The end of the weapon had unexpectedly curled around her shoulder, the blood splattering all over her face and neck.

He walked in front of her and picked up her chin, caressing her cheek with his thumb. He knew she would have no more energy to struggle. "You know, Raven, at first I was unhappy. It wasn't you who I wanted to capture six months ago, it was Robin. But now I see that what had once been an accident, has turned into a fun time for me. Not for you, though. Not for you."

He let her chin drop to her chest, and then he turned to leave. "I will be back soon," he said, walking out the door and shutting it closed behind him.

(TT)

Raven gasped awake two days later, her hand traveling to the place that God awful whip had curled. She felt the scar there, and she shivered at the memory.

"Hey, Rae."

The woman turned to see Garfield sitting beside her, sleepily rubbing his eyes. He had probably fallen asleep and woke up when she heard her screams.

"Gar," Raven breathed out, her eyes wide with fear.

"What's wrong?" he asked, although he already knew the answer. He reached for her shaking hand and squeezed it gently, trying to provide her with some assurance.

"It's S-Slade," she replied, closing her eyes. A single tear fell down her cheek. "He w-won't leave m-me alone…" She choked on her words, suddenly burying her head in her hand.

"Hey," Garfield said then, standing up and gathering her into his arms. "You're safe now. Slade will never touch you again." When Raven didn't reply, he said, "How about we go to the living room? The others are waiting for you."

Raven nodded slowly. "O-Okay," was her whispered answer.

She let Garfield help her stand up, let him use himself as her support and let him lead her into their lounge, where the other titans were sitting, watching TV. Titans East must have left back to their tower, she guessed.

The minute they saw her, they turned the TV off and ran over to her, bombarding her with questions:

"Are you alright, friend Raven?"

"I didn't give you permission to leave the infirmary…"

"How are you feeling, Raven?"

"Come, sit, friend."

"Are you sure you're okay to-"

"STOP!!"

Something near the kitchen shattered, and everyone realized that it was Raven's powers that had caused it.

Raven suddenly groaned, beginning to fall. Garfield was right there to catch her, helping her back up.

"It's alright, Rae, I got you," he said, kissing the top of her head gently.

"Does this mean that you can … use your powers?" Starfire asked when Raven seemed to have calmed.

Their friend looked around the room with hopelessness in her eyes. She decided to try and move Silkie, who was lounging on the couch, sleeping. When she tried to pick her up, nothing happened.

The poor sorceress looked defeated, and she hung her head in shame. "No," she said, pain in her voice. "I don't think I will soon, either."

"Let's not make any assumption, Raven," Robin told her, trying to be positive. "Maybe they'll come back."

"Don't you see, Robin?" Raven suddenly asked, raising her voice slightly. "Slade took away my powers. Those chains that I was hanging from…" She paused and rubbed her wrists unconsciously, as if remembering the pain. "... they didn't just suppress my powers. They slowly took them away … I don't know if it's permanent or not - and God knows I don't want them to be - but I also don't know when I'm going to get them back. That little outburst that you just saw? That was because I thought I was back there for a second, and I did the only thing I could think of to try and defend myself."

A silence fell on top of the five titans.

Finally, it was Raven who broke it. "How did you find me?" she asked.

"Slade called us," Cyborg replied. "Said he got bored of you and told us where to find you. We had thought that he was lying, but just for the sake of it, we went."

Raven nodded. "Thank you … And now you probably want to know what he did to me … and anything else I can tell you so you can try and track him."

A small frown appeared on Robin's face. "You don't have to if you don't want to, Raven," he quickly assured her. "We can wait until you're ready."

"It's better to just get it over with already," Raven said, shrugging out of Beast Boy's arms and walking over to the couch.

After carefully sitting down, she began, "The only thing I know is that Slade had some kind of sleeping quarters somewhere in his prison."

"We saw them when we came in," Cyborg said. "We searched it but we found nothing."

His friend - more like a sister, really - nodded and continued, "He came in a couple of times a day, sometimes coming up with new torture methods, sometimes repeating old ones. He seemed to be working alone, but I have a feeling that some other villains that we have fought were helping him get his hands on different weapons." She shivered. "Like I said, his chains took away my powers, so I was never able to try and get out. I tried … but each time I got even remotely close of escaping, he caught me and…"

Her voice suddenly broke and she looked away, her breathing speeding up. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, and realized that it was Starfire.

"Please, friend, you do not have to say any more," she said. "We all know how much this hurts you, and we truly do not want to see you hurt again."

Raven smiled weakly. "Thanks, Starfire," was all she was able to say. She turned to Cyborg then. "Can I please go to my room and not the infirmary?"

Cyborg nodded. "You can do whatever you want, Rae," he said. Raven never asks for permission, he thought to himself. It's like she thinks she's still someone's object.

"I'll help you to your room," Garfield offered, relief taking over his heart when Raven nodded. After taking a deep breath, the two of them slowly made their way to her bedroom.

When Garfield accidentally slammed the door behind them, he saw his poor Raven flinch, and it shattered his heart. Deciding not to bring it up, he walked over to her bed and began setting her bed. He helped her slip under the covers once done, pulling a chair beside the bed and sitting down.

"You know, Slade told me, a little while before you rescued me," Raven suddenly said, not meeting Garfield's eyes, "that he was actually after Robin … not me. He hadn't meant to capture me instead of him, but as time passed, he realized that it was actually a good thing he got the wrong titan. He liked having me as a pet … a toy."

When Beast Boy heard this, his eyes widened, and anger took ahold of his heart and mind. He quickly pushed it back down and moved to sit on the bed instead of the chair. Without saying anything, he leaned forward and placed his lips on her own, praying that she would return the kiss.

Thankfully, she did.

The moment lasted for a minute before they pulled away.

"I missed this," Garfield murmured, kissing her once more. He placed his hand on her cheek, wiping her tears away with his thumb.

"Me, too," Raven whispered, taking a shaking breath. She pulled Garfield towards her, unable to stop herself from kissing him once more. When they separated, she kept her forehead against his. "I missed this a lot." More tears began streaming down her face.

Garfield moved again, this time to lay on the bed with her. He pulled her into an embrace, one hand draped over her waist, the other playing with her hair. "Just rest now, Rae. I'm right here with you."

Slowly, sleep began to claim her, and she welcomed it with open arms. In a couple of minutes, she was asleep.

TBC